July 2010

July 28, 2010

Historically, many of the parts to the engine that has historically pulled the U.S. economy from the depths of recession have come from small business.So much of the talk of late has been about doing things so as not to disrupt the natural energy of American small businesses to get back to work, and ultimately to hire people and unburden the public dole of out-of-work Americans.Unfortunately, there are obstacles in both the current financial marketplace as well as in the evolution of small business in present times that will likely diminish the ability of small business to be of much help to the country as a whole this time around.

As to the former, we’re finding that small companies are having a very difficult time gaining access to credit.Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been increasing his efforts at encouraging banks to lend to small businesses, pointing out that any unwillingness will cause whatever recovery that’s in motion to cease altogether.The significance of this cannot be overlooked; according to the Chairman, small businesses in America employ roughly half of all Americans, and account for about 60 percent of new job creation.Lending to small businesses has dropped steadily over the past few years, and that trend shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

Compounding the matter is the very nature of the new wave of small businesses; many are now purposely kept small by their owners, who, by virtue of technological evolution as well as by a desire for greater simplicity, are able to succeed in structures that require no more than one person to operate.The reality is that the ease with which one can handle the operations of a business in this day and age, with all of the available gadgets and resources…from the variety of communications mechanisms, to virtual offices, and so on…makes it much more difficult to rationalize hiring an additional person who is anything other than an immediate and direct producer of revenue…and how many of those folks are really out there?

There’s a “good news/bad news” feature to all of this.On the one hand, the economy, as a whole, may well languish in recessionary times for quite a while longer.However, for many who are unemployed, perhaps realizing that it is so much easier to begin a functional small business of one’s own might be the key to at least ending some of the more personal recessions that currently plague the American economic landscape.

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com) and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).

July 04, 2010

The vastly changed and still-changing economic landscape in America is prompting more and more of our fellow citizens to soberly contemplate relocating, in their retirement years, from places within U.S. borders to locations outside of…in some cases, far outside of…the home of the brave and the land of the free.For an increasing number, one of the more reliable retirement “plans” is to move to a country where the cost of living is so inexpensive that even if one had no more than an average Social Security check to sustain him, he could live very well.Internet searches on the topic are way up, and with many economies around the world expected to thrive more than ours in the coming years, the idea of moving to a foreign country is something that is based as much, or more, in sound personal economics as it is in romantic notions of how to spend one’s golden years.

Mexico, Panama, and Ecuador are but three examples of other countries where a little goes a long, long way; these are places where the average Social Security check…about $1200…can cover rent, utilities, groceries, even health insurance and reasonable entertainment expenses.

For those concerned about the quality of health care abroad, particularly in countries that are not fully representative of developed nations, the apprehension is understandable, but in the land of the tough choice (where we all live now), it is no longer the deal-breaker it once was.Greater numbers of people seem to be comfortable in deciding that it is not imprudent to opt for getting substantially more from what might be fewer retirement dollars, in exchange for accepting a measured risk that the quality of the health services available as we age may not be something that sustains us into the far outreaches of biological longevity.Going forward, many of us will consider choices that ask us to select between comfortable retirements in faraway places and less comfortable, even uncomfortable, retirements in these United States.To each his own, I say, but what is the point of living a long time if so many of those days are fraught with financial uncertainty, particularly at the very point in our lives when we are least capable of withstanding it?

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the recently-released book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc; www.investorspassport.com) and the new unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press; www.mikereevesonline.com).